Why? How? What?

Hey all,

This is awesome. Just got done reading through the first chapter of the book, and I'm very hopeful about what we're embarking on here. I'm looking forward to reading through McLaren's thoughts, challenges, and ideas, but even more so, I'm looking forward to hearing and learning from all of your perspectives, emotions, and leadings.

To continue on the from the comment I left on Beth's post, I thought I'd throw out some ideas that both Beth's words and the first chapter of the book brought-up for me.

Why? How? What? Three questions that I think we're all going to being asking (somewhat rhetorically) a lot more as we work through the book (and life in general). And as we try to sort through this mess of questions and confusion in search of solutions and justice, I think Beth rightly feels led to look at the root of the problems, to see the interconnectedness of these systemic sins, rather than only at the isolated cases of injustice. In the course of this search, we come across fantastic organizations & initiatives like KIVA, D.A.T.A. & the ONE Campaign, UNDP, Ashoka, etc., and I often get really excited as I learn about these budding innovations that are gaining momentum in addressing these incredibly complex situations which move beyond non-progressive "band-aid" actions. Yet, as I recently mentioned to the guys on our 519 blog, I've also found myself getting carried away in the sheer challenge of addressing these problems, subconsciously subordinating my faith in Jesus to my faith in the ability of man... or to say it another way, I start to get so caught-up in the rally of human efforts to feed mouths, eradicate diseases, and build economies that I've found it easy to lose sight of our conviction that the freedom of love found in Jesus is the true hope of the world. Not that these pursuits aren't worth the dedication of our lives and careers (because they certainly are), but it's a good reminder for me to know that true justice and healing will come from the expansion of the Kingdom rather than simply from increased giving from the developed world... and I'm constantly shown that the expansion of the Kingdom starts with change in my own life. (sorry, that was a lot of rambling, and I'm not even sure if it makes sense...)

All of that to say that I'm looking forward to seeing how McLaren sets-up what he calls the "framing story" for viewing the crises of our generation from a Christ-following perspective. I have hopes that the ideas that we discuss here will somehow shape the direction that Tara and I will take with our [growing!] family in the coming months. As we grapple with potentially moving and looking for a new job, I've found myself mulling-over the following quotes from Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution quite a bit lately:

"We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor. " (113)

"It’s no wonder that the footsteps of Jesus lead from the tax collectors to the lepers. I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end." (114)